“If the Church is a Christian community it will not need a Christian party. If it is a true fellowship it will perform with its words and its whole existence all the functions which the disastrous enterprise of ‘Christian’ parties is intended to fulfill. There will be no lack of individual Christians who will enter the political arena anonymously, that is, in the only way they can appear on the political scene, and who will act in accordance with the Christian approach and will thereby prove themselves unassuming witness of the Gospel of Christ, which alone can bring salvation in the political sphere no less than elsewhere.”
Karl Barth, “Christian Community and Civil Community."
In these days, the anxiety levels swirling around Election Day 2016 are higher than I can ever remember in my lifetime. Some are suggesting they are higher than they have been in our nation’s history. And this includes the age of duals we now know well, thanks to Hamilton.
The rhetoric of candidates and pundits, backyard conversations and on-line rants are laced in hyperbolic fear tactics that perpetuates unparalleled dis-ease and presumes what happens on November 8th could prevent a sun rise on November 9th. Through it all, the American electorate are mere pawns in the political game of chess and quest for public allegiance.
The church is not exempt from this scheme.
While our votes matter and the impact of this year’s election will bear consequences for generations to come, in many ways we have forgotten the Christian confession echoed throughout centuries and in the midst of even the most tyrannical and oppressive rulers- Christ is Lord.
This loaded political statement has been lost, for some, in a church wed to privilege, power, political wooing, and the allure of Christendom now dead. So we are dared to reclaim the confession in the days ahead. Not because we are standing on soapboxes with bullhorns bent on converting the masses; rather, we need assurance that no matter who sits in the Oval now or in the next four years, our hope resides in the Elected One whose name is Jesus.* This will be true whether Trump or Hillary, Gary or Theo Epstein (who many may write in post Cubs victory). We are not saved by the faulty promises and broken policies of those who lobby for our votes. Our hope does not rest in political figures, be they Caesar or President. This is a truth both the religious right and left have forgotten these days, myself included, as if we needed further reason to testify to the world the church is as divided and confused as Washington.
So while we must exercise our right to vote, may we do so aware our first allegiance is pledged to Christ and no other. Regardless of the results, may we dare to live into our Christian witness that speaks truth to power, extends welcome to foreigners, elevates the cause of those on the margins, advocates for just economics, protects those profiled due to their race or ethnicity, values the sanctity of life, cares for the earth we call home, prioritizes peacemaking, extends love to enemies of all kinds, and lives into the hope for a day surely coming when God will make all things new and right again for all nations, peoples, and the creation God made as good.
This through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Christ, God’s Elected One.
To cling to this confession neither minimizes nor dismisses our responsibility in this election or any matters related to politics. On the contrary, what we believe to be true about the gospel and the witness of Jesus as Elected One becomes the lens by which we view candidates and the conscience that undergirds our votes.
In this sense, this confession is as urgent in 2016 as it has ever been previously.
So may we be so bold to follow the Elected One at our polling places and everyday thereafter. Still more, may we remember the sun will rise on November 9th and our call as the church will, too.
Related Links and Notes:
*Karl Barth once wrote, “Jesus is not merely the Reconciler between God and man. First, He is Himself the reconciliation between them. And so He is not only the Elected. He is also Himself the Elector, and in the first instance His election must be understood as active…It is in Him that the eternal election becomes immediately and directly the promise of our own election as it is enacted in time, our calling, our summoning to faith, our assent to the divine intervention on our behalf, the revelation of ourselves as the sons of God and of God as our Father, the communication with the Holy Spirit who is none other than the Spirit of this act of obedience, the Spirit of obedience itself, and for us the Spirit of adoption. When we ask concerning the reality of the divine election, what can we do but look at the One who performs this act of obedience, who is Himself the act of obedience, who is Himself in the first instance the Subject of this election." (Church Dogmatics II.2 106)